


Love Finds a Way

by furiosity



Series: Eternal Summer (Right out of Hand) [6]
Category: Free!
Genre: Episode Tag, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-19
Updated: 2014-08-19
Packaged: 2018-02-13 21:57:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2166618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/furiosity/pseuds/furiosity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haruka assumes they're dating; Makoto doesn't deny it -- but they've never talked about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love Finds a Way

Makoto stands over Haruka's desk disabling his phone alarm wearing only his pyjama bottoms, and Haruka gazes at his broad back and hopes Makoto will forget to wear a T-shirt to bed.

That's the least of what he's hoping for.

Makoto puts on the T-shirt.

Haruka sighs and makes room on the bed. Makoto gets in beside him, pulls the covers halway up, and then leans down to kiss Haruka's mouth, cupping Haruka's cheek. Haruka melts up into him, wondering how it is that even though he always knows it's going to happen, his belly fills with butterflies every time Makoto's lips come near his skin.

The first time it happened was at the hotel when they went to the prefecturals last summer. Haruka came back from his evening walk and got into Makoto's bed by mistake. Makoto pulled him close sleepily and kissed his face as though it were the most natural thing in the world -- and it was. Haruka kissed him back, waking Makoto right up, and then they kissed each other, slow and careful, far into the night. It felt like a dream, and more so upon waking: Makoto acted like everything was as before. Haruka didn't mind: they had a full day of events ahead of them. Rei and Nagisa -- and, as it later turned out, Rin -- were relying on them both. They had been together long enough that they could avoid -- or at least put off -- some conversations without straining the friendship.

Only they're still putting it off even now.

Haruka assumes they're dating; Makoto doesn't deny it -- but they've never talked about it. Between club activities, homework, their other friends, and chores, they don't get too much time to themselves like this; only when Makoto is allowed to sleep over. When Haruka sleeps over, there's usually at least one small child burrowed into his futon before he and Makoto even decide to go to bed. 

It doesn't feel right to do it any other time, anyway: this is something that belongs only to them. A private thing, a secret -- not shameful, just _theirs_. Haruka doesn't want anyone to even imagine Makoto the way only Haruka knows him. The way Makoto fits against him, the soft sounds he makes when Haruka kisses him, the way Makoto smiles at him in the morning: if Haruka were a dragon, he would curl around these things in his undersea lair and guard them jealously forever.

He slips a hand beneath Makoto's shirt and pulls him on top, hooks one leg around Makoto's body and makes the kiss deeper. He knows what it feels like when Makoto gets excited: his breathing gets even heavier than when he swims, and his dick gets so hot on Haruka's thigh it's like he might burn right through the pyjamas. Since the first time, Haruka has wanted to know what it will feel like in his hands.

They've never taken things even that far, but that's what Haruka hopes will change tonight. Makoto's parents took the twins to visit family a few towns over and won't be back until Sunday. Besides swim club practice, they have nothing to do all weekend, and no one to distract them. Probably. With Nagisa around, that's never a sure thing. But Nagisa isn't going to run away from home again, so they can at least be alone at night. 

Haruka's spent a lot more time thinking about this than he has thought about anything else lately -- he wants more than kisses, than soft, quiet moans; he wants Makoto's voice raised in pleasure, Makoto's eyes clouded with lust, Makoto's whole body shuddering against him. He wants Makoto. He works one hand underneath the waistband of Makoto's pyjama bottoms, wanting to feel hot skin against his fingers when he palms Makoto's ass this time.

Makoto stops kissing him. "What are you doing?"

Haruka pulls his hand back. "You don't want to."

"It's not like that." Makoto sighs and rolls onto his back. "I-- I don't think it's right for us to do that kind of thing."

Haruka doesn't look at him. "Because we're both guys?"

"No."

"Then why?"

"I feel like if we did it now, it would be out of a kind of desperation. Like we're only doing it because otherwise we'll never get to."

Haruka wishes he could take the last two minutes back, because _this_ is not a conversation he wanted to have tonight, or at all. His chest is hollow and there are tiny angry morays biting off little pieces of his insides. He hates that feeling more than anything.

"Never?" he echoes, looking at Makoto's profile.

Makoto doesn't speak for a while. When he does, his tone is plaintive, as though he's hoping that Haruka's answer can change the whole world. "Are your parents still keeping in touch with their childhood friends? Their high school classmates?"

"I don't know what my parents are doing," Haruka lies. His parents' friends are all from work or college or the neighbourhood. But that doesn't mean anything. They moved away from Iwatobi.

_I might move away from Iwatobi._

"I've been asking my parents about their friends," Makoto says. "Mom's best friend is her childhood friend too, but they only see each other once or twice a year. Dad exchanges New Year's postcards with two of his old high school buddies, and they actually went to college together. Everyone else is mostly coworkers. I even got them to ask at work about it, said it was for a project. Most people are the same."

Haruka remains silent. Just because Makoto has a point doesn't mean he has to agree with it.

"I asked Ama-chan-sensei and Coach Sasabe, too, and it's the same." Makoto sighs. "I don't-- I don't want that for us, for our team, especially for you and me. But it doesn't matter if I want it or not."

"The future will happen whether any of us want it to or not," Haruka says, sitting up. "So quit saying that kind of stuff."

"H-Haru?" Makoto sits up as well.

Haruka shakes his head. "Stuff like never. Stuff like we have to be realistic and this and that."

"I'm not saying it to hurt your feelings--"

"I'll write it on my career counselling form," Haruka interrupts. "I'll write _I want to stay together with Makoto_. Maybe Ama-chan-sensei will have some good advice."

Makoto snickered. "Sensei would probably just put her finger in the air and quote some old guy. Something about the fleeting nature of earthly desires." He pulls Haruka to himself. "Hey, maybe if I raise my results dramatically between now and the prefecturals, I will be scouted too."

Haruka puts his head on Makoto's shoulder. One of the things he likes the most about Makoto is that he always knows when it's pointless to keep arguing. "Even if you don't do that, we'll find a way."

Makoto kisses the top of his head and lies back down. Haruka crawls back into his arms and realises he's tired. So tired. He feels like he was dragging a whale around on his back and now it's suddenly gone.

"Haru…?"

"What?"

"Are we going to do it now?"

"No, because you killed the mood."

"Aww." 

Makoto's arms tighten around Haruka's shoulders, and Haruka closes his eyes.

They still have the whole weekend.

[end]


End file.
